The Place of Sorcery in the Thought of a Seventeenth-Century Moroccan Astronomer and Alchemist

Abstract

Abstract:In the Seventeenth-Century a prominent Moroccan scholar wrote a treatise against sorcery, laying out various types of permitted occult practices while condemning others. This article contextualizes al-Mirghiti's (d. 1089/1678) treatise within broader Moroccan views on sorcery and magic between the 16-18th centuries and describes in detail the treatise's instructions on how to construct and employ talismans. Since al-Mirghiti is best known in prior scholarship for his writings on astronomy— and to a lesser extent alchemy—a reading of his treatise against sorcery opens up a broader discussion around the place of the occult within the Moroccan landscape of institutional teaching and studying of the religious, mathematical, and natural sciences.